|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Hi, my name is Peter. I am a retired research scientist living in the North West of England some 20 miles from Chester. My children Andrew and Alison have flown the coup, and are happily married to Linda and Andy, respectively. I have three grandsons, two through Andrew and Linda, of whom Jamie at least recognises the Moon, and moreover knows where it should be. This is encouraging for my future generations. Jack (born on 10th Dec. 2003), bless his heart, has not committed himself, yet, and looks more likely to be a fine soccer player. My most recent grandson Campbell, through Alison and Andy, and born on 7th April 2005, generally has sleep on his mind at the moment. My wife Ann is supportive of this unearthly hour's consuming hobby, but then again it does place me outside the house! My brother Don and my sister-in-law Jill, give great encouragement, but are somewhat bias.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
My part-time studies were undertaken at UMIST in corrosion science and engineering. Other consultancy involved cancer research with a team at MRI. My technical background is in chemistry, electrochemistry and metallurgy. Leisure activities include 5-a-side football, coarse fishing and more recently golf. My health is at the crossroads, in a manner of speaking, and has no doubt spurred me to put my astronomy findings into the public domain, as is much of my other work.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Prior to early retirement, I revisited an interest of early youth, that is, astronomy. A 1 inch refractor, which I have today, allowing sharp images of the planets and Moon captured my imagination as a young lad in the soot laden West Midlands. A 75 mm refractor, purchased in the USA, where between 1967-74 the family spent some most pleasant and informative years and made lifelong friends in Columbus, Ohio in particular, proved to demonstrate in 1997 that the enthusiasm had wained little. Photography with a SLR camera proved frustrating, mostly due to the poor prints returned by local film processing shops. However, photographic development and printing per se held no interest for me. This led me to the consideration of CCD (charge-coupled device) camera imaging (see The Art and Science of CCD Astronomy, Edited by David Ratledge, Springer-Verlag, 1997 ). There was sufficient information available, however, to warn of the need for careful choice of telescope and equipment to ensure sufficient telescope alignment, targeting and tracking capabilties for viable images to be obtained.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The f/4 Schmidt-Newtonian reflector offered a number of advantages. It's short enclosed tube of 685 mm provided for a physically manageable telescope with minimal risk of dust pickup on the mirror of good light gathering power at 200 mm diameter. The focal length of 800 mm would translate into a wide field of view of some 2.5 degrees diameter at prime focus. This would produce a field of view of 21 by 15 arcminutes on a 4.9 mm by 3.6 mm CCD chip placed at prime focus. A reasonable number of astronomical objects ( Interesting Objects Listed by Size ) fall into this image size, though planets would realistically require magnification for more satisfying photographs. For example, at prime focus, the Moon is some 30 arcmin. in diameter, whereas Jupiter and Saturn are typically some 0.5 and 0.25 arcmin. in diameter, respectively.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The Vixen GP Polaris equatorial mount offered good stability, an internal (Polar) telescope to optimise Celestial Pole alignment, and accurate quartz timed motor drives with controller unit to aid (siderial time) target tracking. The disadvantages are difficult collimation and star checking, due to the small focal ratio, and some light loss due to the Schmidt corrector plate.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
A Starlight Xpress CCD camera, model MX5, was purchased in March 1998, when observation and imaging started in earnest. Collimation, tracking and other problems discussed in other pages were not resolved overnight, but were overcome, or their limits of constraint defined, with patience. The problems will be common to most beginners, but the lessons learned are worth sharing, if only to provoke discussion and thought or to compare notes.
Your thoughts and comments on this website are welcomed, and can be made through my Guestbook.
Footnote: Peter passed away peacefully on 8th August 2005. This site will remain 'live' dedicated to his memory. Miss you dad.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
250 +
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 Try AOL NOW! Get 500 Hours FREE! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| page created with Easy Designer |